Mary Shafer & Alan Erskine

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...

My sister's Irish Setter polished off a three pound sausage....meat,
skin, label, and metal end clips...after she left it alone with the
groceries for a half-an-hour. :-D

(newsgroups trimmed, thank you)

The main reason dogs (or cats for that matter) eat items they are not
supposed to eat is because their human supervisors feed them table scraps.
Then the human's go off at the poor pets who don't know any better.


--
Alan Erskine
We can get people to the Moon in five years,
not the fifteen GWB proposes.
Give NASA a real challenge

In article ,
"Alan Erskine" writes:
"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...

My sister's Irish Setter polished off a three pound sausage....meat,
skin, label, and metal end clips...after she left it alone with the
groceries for a half-an-hour. :-D

(newsgroups trimmed, thank you)

The main reason dogs (or cats for that matter) eat items they are not
supposed to eat is because their human supervisors feed them table scraps.
Then the human's go off at the poor pets who don't know any better.

It's a standard application of Dog Rule #3:
"The worst of their food is beter than the best of ours."

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

l (Peter Stickney) writes:
It's a standard application of Dog Rule #3:
"The worst of their food is beter than the best of ours."

See http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df9401/df940112.jpg

--
Richard W Kaszeta

http://www.kaszeta.org/rich

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 12:03:44 GMT, "Alan Erskine"
wrote:

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...

My sister's Irish Setter polished off a three pound sausage....meat,
skin, label, and metal end clips...after she left it alone with the
groceries for a half-an-hour. :-D

(newsgroups trimmed, thank you)

The main reason dogs (or cats for that matter) eat items they are not
supposed to eat is because their human supervisors feed them table scraps.
Then the human's go off at the poor pets who don't know any better.

I know what you mean. The dogs don't see any difference between
eating the roast sitting on the counter before dinner and eating the
scraps after dinner and who can blame them?

It was my fault the dogs ate the bread and Doritos that they retrieved
from the trash. That's why I had to get a new trash can. The dogs
didn't get into any trouble. They were quite proud of their
cleverness in scrounging such tasty food and I didn't disillusion them
at all.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer

Mary Shafer writes:
It was my fault the dogs ate the bread and Doritos that they retrieved
from the trash. That's why I had to get a new trash can. The dogs
didn't get into any trouble. They were quite proud of their
cleverness in scrounging such tasty food and I didn't disillusion them
at all.

Indeed, usually in a case like your's it's way easier to fix the trash
can than fix the dog's behavior.

Similarly, with the training group I work with, we have this story:

A rolled up newspaper can be an effective training tool when used
properly. For instance, use the rolled-up newspaper if your dog chews
up something inappropriate or has a housebreaking accident. Bring the
dog over to the destroyed object (or mess), then take the rolled-up
newspaper... and hit yourself over the head as you repeat the phrase,

"I FORGOT TO WATCH MY DOG, I FORGOT TO WATCH MY DOG!"

--
Richard W Kaszeta

http://www.kaszeta.org/rich

"Mary Shafer" wrote in message
...

It was my fault the dogs ate the bread and Doritos that they retrieved
from the trash. That's why I had to get a new trash can. The dogs
didn't get into any trouble. They were quite proud of their
cleverness in scrounging such tasty food and I didn't disillusion them
at all.

I remember a guy who posted to another group. He had squirrels and
chipmunks in his backyard and kept food for them in a large, plastic rubbish
bin. The little devils simply bit and scratched their way through the
rubbish bin to get at all the food and had a smorgasbord.


--
Alan Erskine
We can get people to the Moon in five years,
not the fifteen GWB proposes.
Give NASA a real challenge

"Alan Erskine" wrote in message
...
"Mary Shafer" wrote in message
...

It was my fault the dogs ate the bread and Doritos that they retrieved
from the trash. That's why I had to get a new trash can. The dogs
didn't get into any trouble. They were quite proud of their
cleverness in scrounging such tasty food and I didn't disillusion them
at all.

I remember a guy who posted to another group. He had squirrels and
chipmunks in his backyard and kept food for them in a large, plastic
rubbish
bin. The little devils simply bit and scratched their way through the
rubbish bin to get at all the food and had a smorgasbord.

Had a squirrel that ate through the boot around the stickshift in my car.




--
Alan Erskine
We can get people to the Moon in five years,
not the fifteen GWB proposes.
Give NASA a real challenge